The Graces
by Shellymer
Summary: Piper and Jason and their children. Description and fluff! R&R! Open and enjoy!
1. Chapter 1

The door was wide open in our family's little house in little Rome. I could see the hills out in the distance. I could feel the beaches and the setting sun and the whispers of parents tucking their babies into bed. Like I was about to do. I could feel everything that was beautiful and pure in this little portion of California - the most beautiful state around.

"Piper," a deep voice said. I shivered a bit. When Jason, my husband, startles me like that... it's really scary. His voice commanded so much power. Sometimes he even scared the kids. He came up behind me and wrapped his arm around my size 8 waist.

"What are you doing?" He asks.

"Just... the sky. It's red. It's kind of violent..." I trail off, knowing the effect my words will have. I turn and look at his face. I love watching it happen.

His face screws in concentration, and in this strong man that is my husband, I almost see the teenager I first met when I was 16. His dusty-coral lips. His sandy blonde hair that glints off the sun, his azure eyes like the highest cloud in winter.

Suddenly the sky changes to a fading rose-pink. I realize that this is the exact color of my lips, and the rose-pink meets the coral.

We walk back to the house together. It's an adorable little cottage with a few stories. It's only ten minutes walk to the fence which sepeartes us from the camp. We live very close to it compared to everyone else. Once we were married, Jason got his pick of any house because he was a praetor, and I loved this one, so he pretended it had been his pick too.

We stop at the door, hearing the laughter of our son and daughters. Jason looks at me right in the eyes, his face lit up by the joy his children bring him. I've never seen anyone so gentle with our daughter. I've never seen such pride over a son.

The second his eyes meet mine, I know mine have retracted to green. It is the color they become when Jason looks at me and me alone. It is said that when a child of Aphrodite gazes into the eyes of her one true love, she or he begins to glow, and Jason heartily testifies that this is true.

We push open the door to greet our progeny. Our son Beau ran up and hugged his daddy's legs. He looked up at me with pleading five-year old doe eyes and said, "mama, can I have some ambwosia?" It was our kids' favorite thing. Zeus had made it so they could have as much as a normal demigod could, but i wasnt necessarily sure that was a good thing. It was their version of the very best swiss chocolate or something.

"No, baby, no now," I say, "let's get you to bed. Tomorrow, maybe."

he plays the cute card, tears welling up in his eyes, which are rapidly changing color. (he can control it. HOW? teach Mommy, Beau!) he gives his chubby gold curls a shake, and my heart breaks a little. He lets his eyes stay blue, the color of his father's. And then he got just the teenist bit of nectar. the kid knows how to work me.

Cain rushes downstairs.

"HE gets ambrosia? WHAT? Dude, that is SO not fair. It's just cause he's cute and little, huh?" Cain is fourteen. He'd be a heartbreaker if he's just get out there with girls. But he's such a wimp. He sits in the corner of the classroom, causing schoolwide blackouts when like gets boring.

Cain gets a spoonful, and flops on the couch to watch TV.

"Uh-uh. I'm not an old man yet, son. I can stills see my watch!" Jason jokes, "I'm only thirty-three. And i know it's nine o'clock on a school night - just enough rest for you to cause a lightning strike to Mr. Cambell tomorrow. Go to bed, Cain!"

Cain drags himself off the couch, but gives us goodnights and I love yous before heading off.

Our daughter emerges. At thirteen, she's a beauty. She has long golden-brown hair and my constantly changing eyes, the only trait of mine that her brother Cain didnt inherit. She has obvously been styling her hair in preperation for Monday, tomorrow. It hangs in ringlets cascading down her back, pinner back with a pearl-and silver pin, a gift from her grandmother.

she grabs and apple. She's nowhere near fat, but... back in the olden times, puppy fat was beautiful. So, children of Aphrodite aren't sticks or anything. Common misconception. It's not just the beanpoles that are daughters and cons of beauty. But she doesnt like it and I cant say it was the best for me, either.

"I love this clip," she says, " I miss Grandma. Can we visit her again sometime? Please?"

"we only go when we're summoned," Jason says, hugging her, "But I think as soon as you start camp in a few months, you'll get to be claimed by her."

He's hinting at something huge here. In the case of quarter-gods, you never know who'll claim who. Sometimes, there will be the poor kis who isnt claimed: has too little god or goddess in them. Of course, we as the parents are told by the time our children are three who they will be claimed by. Cain was claimed by Jupiter a summer ago, and Harmony and Beau will be claimed by Aphrodite. Harmony will be claimed in just a few weeks. Then she'll be.. pretty much a legionaire.

Cain came downstairs for a glass of water. He zapped himself on it.

"Grow some brains," scoffed Harmony.

He stuck his tongue out again and got electrocuted again. She flipped her hair and started to take Beau back to his room.

And that's when the unthinkable happened: Harmony was lifted into the air by a pink beam of light and the room began to smell like roses. she was spun around and around an before we knew it, she was let down, stunned and stuffed into a very beautiful outfit, what looked to be like a pink wedding dress, complete with rosettes and a tulle bottom. her hair was done like a goddess's and she glowed faintly pink. She wore gold jewelry and her hair was held back by her special pin. And then, Cain fainted, because Aphrodite appeared in full form next to my daughter, both of the looking nearly eequally beautiful.

Aphrodite spoke: "I claim Harmony Calista Grace for my own. I know this is early, but there is somethingI require of her."

Harmony leans forward excitedly. "what?"

Aphrodite looks at her seriously and Harmony shrinks a bit in the woman's presence.

"a blind date."


	2. Chapter 2

Piper POV

I fiddle with the clasp on my daughter's new camp-approved chestplate. She's thirteen. Going off to camp. She won't need much protection from me now. Cain waits at the fence, ready to escort her in. He waves to a group of kids ahead of him. Three boys and a girl. Suddenly, I'm unsure I want my little baby going there. But my hand is zapped away from her armor by a pink lightning ray, and my hand stings. Low-power, but enough to tell me it's time to let go.

Cain and Harmony run to the principia to get Harmony instated. They smiled and waved goodbye behind them. Even though we live so near, I don't know if I'll be seeing Harmony for a few months. I worry about her. She's such a typical Aphrodite girl… I don't know. I wonder about her sometimes.

Cain POV

I didn't like letting Harmony go in there. She's so sweet and little. I felt like I needed to protect her. But I let the thought float out of my head and met up with my friends. Morgan is my best friend. He's a son of Hecate, and between me and him, class at Santa Monica High School is a blast. We frequently cause all kinds of trouble there. He's got purple eyes like most of the Hecate kids, and he's pretty short.

Apple and Keiko, sons of Pomona, clapped me on the back.

"delivering your sister to the beast?" Keiko asked.

"Naw, man. She can handle herself. She's almost as powerful as a full demigod," I say. I glance at Caly, my total crush. She's so pretty. Her hair is that gorgeous chestnut and her eyes glow blue-green, like the eyes of her siblings in Apollo.

Sometimes I wonder if she's part Aphrodite, too, which makes it all gross cause… We'd be siblings. And I want to marry that girl someday.

"Yeah, she's a pretty cool kid," Caly agrees.

We head up to the temples.

Apple and Keiko turn off at the small little temple for Pomona, a laden feast that they add to every day. Morgan is suddenly gone from my side and he's forty feet up the hill. He looks back and snickers.

"they don't teach you that where you're from, huh Big Guy?" I laugh along and then playfully zap him a little.

That leaves just Caly and I walking to the top of the hill. She goes to worship Jupiter, too, because Zeus is her patron. Her dad wasn't supposed to have met her mom, a dryad. He especially wasn't supposed to get her pregnant, but he did. So here's Caly. But Zeus was so mad that when she was born, he took away her ability to sing and demanded that she become a gift to him. He hates her especially, but when she hangs out with me, it's okay, because I've told him how much I like her, and he refrains from giving her an electric shock whenever she plugs in a lamp or anything when I'm around.

We make our way up the hill in silence. Every bit of me is yelling at my mouth to say something, but I can't. I just clench and unclench my fists. She's perfectly at ease, or so it seems, touching the canopy of leaves above her head. I think of mom. Come on, Cain! You're a son of Aphrodite (or grandson, whatever) it's go time! But nothing happens. We trot up the hill. I'm eager to get there and have this nightmare be over.

Then there is a little pipsqueak irritating voice in the back of my head that tells me: "now or never! Do you like her or not? You are alone! No one's listening! If you screw up – ah, who cares? She wont tell anyone! She's too good for that. Go on, you sucker! Say something!"

And to my horror, my vocal chords unclench.

NO NO NO!

"hey, Caly… there's the fireworks thing tonight…." Idiot. I trail off, but come back with an attempt at strong, "And If you aren't going with anyone, you and I are such good friends, so maybe it, like, wont be awkward, y'know, if we…" and my voice dies out with a little cough.

We've come to a complete stop now. Caly's eyes boring into mine. Somehow, I think she understands. She giggles a little and leans in. Before I know what's happening, Caly Solace is kissing me.

"Yeah, Cain. I was wondering when you were going to ask."

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	3. Chapter 3

I'm going on a blind date set up by Aphrodite," I whisper to myself, "But it's okay, because She's my grandma and wouldn't make me go with anyone gross or ugly."

I have just left the principia and am a probatio. It's exciting, but knowing I'm not entirely instated kind of bothers me. I am supposed to go up to her temple and that's where… I don't know. That's where she says things will happen. I don't know. I'm nervous and worried.

The hill seems steeper than I remember on field trips here as a kid. Maybe it's just the crushing darkness or my qualms about my date tonight. But I have none on my outfit. Grandma said very dressy. I'm clothed in a long, flowing gold dress I found on my bed this morning. I bought some really nice jewelry off some kid from the Mercury cabin, gold arm and wrist bands and a long belt that's made of coins. I woke up with my hair in a perfect updo, obviously from my grandma.

The temple of Venus is very pretty, but not very large. So you can see how I was surprised when I thought I had scoured the inside looking for anything out of the ordinary when Aphrodite steps out from behind the curtains, clad in an outfit that definitely made it look like she was going on a date herself, the worst part: she looked JUST LIKE MOM.

"Good, you came!" she asseses my outfit. "Perfect. Even better than I had hoped. I'm glad I beat out Jupiter to claim you, pretty one."

"Grandma… who where's my-"

"Oh, don't call me Grandma! How offensive! I'm immortal. You'll die before my life even begins! You can call me… Lady. Yes, that's certainly better. Where were you?"

"Oh, my, uh, date…"

"How silly of me! You two are going as a special favor to me. I've been trying to set up this charming young man for what seems like ages. I'd ask my son Eros to do it, but… He doesn't work well in Roman territory and his Roman counterpart is bedridden with a most awful God Flu… Apollo is at his side, but, still. Anyway, I need you to give him a chance, although I don't know why on earth you wouldn't. His parentage is… complicated at best, and I confess I did have some hand in the fate that befell them. But that aside, there is nothing wrong with him. In fact, I think he's rather handsome, and I don't say that lightly," she says condescendingly. She snaps her fingers and a very disoriented-looking, scared-looking, and VERY cute-looking boy whirls into the temple.

"Harmony Grace, meet Joseph Zhang, son of the Hazel and Frank Zhang, those that should be dead but are not, thanks to love."

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	4. Chapter 4 The Quest Assignment

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Cain POV

Caly is the sweetest girl ever. She… I cant even begin to describe. I'm so, so happy. I never thought life could be like this. Each night, I burn a heart into the sky. It's been on the news a bit, and Jupiter has been a little angry with me, but it's all worth it for my lovely girl. My Caly, my Calypso. The girl I could never leave.

We stroll through the gardens every night, watching the stars (which I can't rearrange – it would confuse the mortals too much) but if I could, the whole night sly would mirror her face, so that I would never be without her.

She sings every night when we reach to water. She stands in it, just letting her heels touch. She turns her back to it and gazes in my eyes and sings. It's not popular music either. She can't stand Adele or anything. Every night I cant remember the tune, and when she stops I am a little disoriented, but every night I fall more and more desperately, crazily, obsessively in love with this beautiful girl.

And I'd have given anything never to stop.

Until we were assigned our quest.

Harmony POV

The seating hostess commented on how beautiful I was, the waiter hit on me, and the guy that wasn't our waiter that came to fill up our cups with soda offered to rub my feet.

I was so embarrassed.

Joseph sat and quietly did what he had to do to get done with this. This was the most awful thing of all! I mean, really! Grandma – sorry, Aphrodite – matched me up with him, so shouldn't we be hitting it off? I mean, he commented on how pretty I looked, and we talked a bit (we're both movie buffs and we love board games) but really, he doesn't seem to be happy about this at all! At first I thought he was just awkward. Then noncommittal. Then a player. Now I think he simply never cared. WHY? I've never been on a date like this. Ever. When it was time to go, he politely paid the bill and kissed my cheek and walked me back to camp. And left. Without anything…. Without- without caring! I was so mad I couldn't think straight. I stormed into the cabin full of a legion of mostly Venus girls.

"Did you HEAR him?" I asked one of my best friends, Satina, a really pretty girl with long dark hair and piercing blue eyes, "Did you HEAR that boy?"

"yeah, he seems like a gentleman," she said, "Babe, what's your prob? He's totes adorbs."

"yeah, but – but- but- he didn't- like-" I have no idea what he did wrong. Everything? Nothing? This boy confused me. Why wasn't he falling al over me? I was everyone's type!

"I'm going to bed," I tell the cabin, all of who's eyes were trained on my crazed incoherence.

I settled down into my pink satn bedsheets and stewed. I had almost sunk into my troubled sleep when there was a knock on the cabin door and some of the girls shrieked.

Beckie got up to answer it. It was Ryan, a son of Mercury. He had a camera waiting and took a quick picture of all of us groggy and without our hair and makeup done. That earned him a fifteen minute-long chase across camp and midnight until we caught him. Just before Marylou delivered the first blow, he screamed: "wait! I have an urgent message for Harmony Grace?" and he holds up a sheet of paper. The girls refrain from beating him for a second, and in that time he manages to make a dash for it. But he has no pursuers. They're all too busy helping me, because I've just passed out. The letter lay open in my hands.

Dear Ms. Grace,

We are sorry for the late notice, but tomorrow morning you are required to complete a quest. Please pack up all necessary belongings and be in front of the Principia by tomorrow at noon. Your questmates are:

Cain Grace

Caly Sira

Joseph Zhang

Tammy Heartstings

Thank you for complying. We look forward to revealing your prophecy!

Signed,

Praetors of Camp Jupiter.

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	5. Chapter 5 the Flight

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The dawn on the day of the quest breaks quickly, without much color and without much bravado, unlike most dawns at Campy Jupiter, which are commonly streaked with many colors, vibrant yet clear with unnatural colors like a lemon-yellow or acid-green streak here and there, as it is something of a doodle pad for the children of Zeus. In fact last year, "Tammy, prom? – Rick" was etched across the sky in an ebony black at seven in the morning, the biggest scandal since an explicit drawing appeared the year before.

My chest was full of butterflies. No, my chest was full of butterflies going through a meat grinder.

I was not ready for a quest, but at least I'd be with Caly. Adventuring through towns, romantic little ice cream shops, flea-bite motels, kisses on the glittering shores of a beach.

We knew the nature of our quest now. There was a disturbance in Florida. All strange things wash up in Florida. We were supposed to go find… well, it sounds so lame, but… kind of a gang of Nereids with a kraken in their possession. So, basically, bunches of freaking mermaids have been picking on people with their big scary monster. So that's kind of it. Ten days max. Easy. Not quite sure why they picked the son and daughter of Aphrodite and Jupiter, though. Doesn't make much sense there. I mean, we're going in the ocean, but the praetors assure us that we will not get zapped or drowned. I'm just hoping that there's some kind of mythological grand design behind the whole thing, because right now, it's crap.

Our packs are packed. The beds in our cabin are made. The air is new and fresh.

I meet Caly, Harmony, Tammy, and Joseph outside in the main square. Then I understand, a little bit, at least, why they chose us. We all look so… normal. Anyone could pass us off as five teenagers walking back from a movie or something. Harmony has her hair up in a messy bun. Caly has hers twirled around in a fancy braid, but it still looks natural enough on her. Joseph looks like he's hiding a huge worry, and Tammy, a girl from Demeter, looks like she just doesn't care. She's around nineteen. Probably been on tons of quests before. But then again, quests are pretty rare. It's entirely possible that she's just hiding her emotions.

No one else is up yet. That's the way it's supposed to be, though. A silent note to the praetors. Our cabins empty. The cover of going to visit our sick relatives for a few days. A quest would make everyone nuts. They'd all want to go on one, and fighting amongst the legions would break out. Everyone thinks no one had been on a quest in forever, when really, they're all happening right under their noses.

We slip through the portal. It's frosty for San Francisco, but already the morning sun is catching the dewdrops on the hill. We need to move, get out of the area.

I hate to say get going to so we can get back, but that's kind of what this is like.

Harmony POV:

All I want the morning of the quest is to see Joseph. I know, lame, right? It's not like I haven't had tons of better looking or smarter or cooler or nicer guys chase me before. But that was just it – wasn't being chased! And of course, this is the only one I want. The one that doesn't want me back.

My eyes trained on his lips. _Kiss me,_ I willed him silently over and over. But he never did. Never even threw me a glance. It was a little sad, really. I was so… devoted. It was weird.

We walked for a few miles until we got to one of the locations of the goddess of the rainbow's health food shop. We picked up some fruit leathers and vitamins to last us the trip. Then we got a ride to the airport, boarded our flight, and soared out of California, but not before we had a 'casualty' – Tammy got an Iris-message that her father was fatally sick on their farm in Kansas, and Tammy, apologizing as much as she could, had to abandon the quest, but left us with all her maps and money. We wished her luck and hoped her dad would get better. Lame, I know. But what else could we do? This was time-sensitive. Ten days.

That's how long we had before the mermaid's Kraken laid its eggs. We already were reading the Florida papers online. There were strange sightings on the coast. That was enough evidence for us that we needed to shut down the operation soon.

But regardless of the worry, the air was SO calming. Being up so high, the thin air, being above the clouds… the promise of thunder somewhere high above… I spent the flight gazing up while the others in the plane gazed down. The flight had no turbulence, smooth as could be. We are glossing over the world. I felt really, really, good, nearly forgetting about Joseph.

When we touched down my inflated mood escaped me. The only good thing that happened in that airport was that Jo helped me out of the place by steadying my hand on his, a very guyish and cute move. I wasn't feeling so hopeless. I know, lame. It's amazing all the things a girl can conjure up with a little imagination.

We had one conversation at a Burger King in Tampa.

"Harmony?"

"Yeah?"

"Um… this wasn't the best quest pairing."

"Oh, yeah… I guess."

"Don't…uh… don't do me any favors. If you don't… you know… like…."

"Oh, that's okay."

I didn't even really understand what he was talking about. Couldn't he see how much I liked him? Was he hinting at liking me too? I didn't know. When I wasn't on top of the game, love was so confusing!

Cain POV:

I could tell my sister and Joseph were… distracted. At best. I wondered how long it would take them to figure out that they loved each other. I would have been directing my romantic attention to Caly, but it appeared that I was the brains of the operation: Caly was sleeping, Tammy had left us before we had boarded our flight, and Joseph and Harmony were… otherwise engaged. Mermaids. Really? Not exactly the kind of thing you'd brag about. "Hey, I defeated a tribe of evil mermaids bent on destroying Earth with their kraken!" I also tried the same meaning about a hundred different ways: "You know that you'd be dead right now if my girlfriend and I hadn't saved the world from a bunch of mermaids!" or "you know mermaids can get very deadly when in gangs? Well, don't worry, because I defeated the most powerful one. You're safe now." SOO lame. And just kind of pitiful.

Ten days before the kraken hatched its eggs. It laid them on a secluded shore with no public access. The mermaids dwelled only a mile out, their kraken buried in an underground cave. We'd learned all of this from our special contact, Percy Jackson, who was a son of Poseidon and had personally gone out, dove in the ocean, and checked out the scene. He was a young marine biologist. We had his number stowed away somewhere for emergencies.

In this, I guess Caly was our best asset, although I wasn't sure how psyched I as to be sending her down to face the Kraken alone. But I couldn't go down there, and neither could Harmony. Wouldn't… work.

Joseph could be very useful as a bodyguard. With superior battle skills and death on his side, he could be indispensable. And he knew what he was doing. He was well-trained. If only he could keep his head in the game and not on my sister!

Harmony. What would she really be able to do? She was like Daphne in Scooby-Doo. She could end up with the pretty roles, able to sweet-talk us out of situations. Don't ever count something as unnecessary until it really is.

And me. I had by default become the brains. I would have to devise plans to getting the eggs out, slaying the Kraken, and capturing the mermaids. I had the worst of it, in my opinion. But there was no time for regrets.

The moment the plane touched down, we could all feel it:

It was time for DOING.

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	6. Chapter 6

**you guyds wanted to know what was going on is JOseph's head, so here it is!**

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Joseph POV:

I walked away from her. I didn't ask her questions. I answered with one word. I didn't want to get my hopes up. I mean, she was an Aphrodite girl. And she was stunning and brilliant and awesome and… she probably didn't like me anyways. When I got signed up for this quest, though, it seemed pretty simple. Stop a mermaid gang. Gangs are my kind of thing. Not that I was in one, of course. That'd be awful. But my dad's a police officer down in Santa Cruz. He busts all kind of gangs and is a dead good-shot with his shotgun. And then we have to steal some Kraken eggs. It seemed almost routine. Until I saw the list of my questmates and knew it would be hellish.

Also, I thought there would be little to no tourism or sightseeing. Cain certainly seemed obstinate enough that there would be no fun. But as soon as Caly warped his mind the way we all see her do, suddenly we were stuck on gooey, romantic rides around this, tours around that. I highly doubt anyone who sent us on this mission would approve of that.

At one point, in a cutesy little pitch black tunnel of love, full of kissing couples, I thought I felt something brush my hand. For a minute I hoped it was Harmony, and then felt stupid when I realized it was a bit of a plastic plant.

Eventually, we made it down to the beach.

And that was when the 'fun' began.

Cain POV:

She gigglingly pulled my arm and dragged me down to the rocky shore. Once we had cleared the pebbles, there was nothing but silken white sands, lolling ocean, and blue sky. Beautiful blue sky. I wanted to fly like a bird, and for a second, I did, hopping out over the ocean, coasting upwards, a backwards flip in the sky and landing where I had taken off.

Caly clapped her hands and kissed me over and over. We laid in the sand together, me stroking her hair and gazing into her perfect blue eyes and touching her dainty nose.

She stared right back at me so intensely that for increasing periods of time, I forgot who I was or who was kissing me. I forgot we were on a mission. I forgot we were on the very beach that was the mermaid's home base. I forgot everything.

And forgetting everything cost me everything.

Caly got up and I shook my head dazedly. She stood with her back towards the ocean, toes pointed towards me in that way of hers, and she started to sing an even more beautiful melody than the one that had been playing in my heart since we first kissed. It was the prettiest thing ever. I grew more entranced as ever. I almost wanted to walk over to her, although I never moved when she sang, I was always so entranced. Her eyes glowed blindingly bright; brighter than ever before. It almost hurt. She extended her arms as she sang, a song that spoke of lies and betrayals and hatred. But the lyrics' poison was hidden under a dripping sweet sauce of fine melody, superior voice, and the beauty of the night.

It was night. She had been singing for hours, I realized in a little moment of clarity. But then I slipped back under her spell and there was no fight in me to ask her to stop so we could get a move on with stopping the Kraken. I was a dead man, pretty much. If only had I known ! If only I had seen the signs! The watery eyes, the sandy hair! The sleekness of a fish in the water, the entrancing voice and the beauty! Caly was no daughter of Apollo or any Nereid or dryad or naiad. No, Caly was…

Her voice hit the highest note with no crack. The song seemed finished, but it soon broke into a new one entirely.

And I was a goner.

Harmony POV:

Joseph was up on the cliffs looking into the private beach that Caly and Cain had entered. I really didn't like Caly. She rubbed me the wrong way. So that's why I was on the cliffs watching them then. Joseph was playing with something on the other side of the inlet.

See, there are a lot of things that I wish about that day. I wish my hair had looked nicer. I wish Jo had made some sort of indication he liked me. I wish my nail polish hadn't been chipping. I wish Joseph hadn't been sitting there so that I wouldn't pay so much attention to him and so little to my brother and his girlfriend. I wish Cain had told me what very beach we were camped on. I wish Joseph had told me that what he was doing on the other side of the cliffs was examining a strange egg he had found on the beach. I wish Caly wasn't in the mermaid gang. I wish she hadn't tried to drown my brother.

She was singing. That much I knew from my infrequent glances in their direction. She did this often. But when he got up and moved towards her like a weirdo, they merited my full attention. And when she suddenly did a back flip into the water and he dove in after her, I screamed. Joseph came running, and I incoherently explained what had happened. He and I ran down there to see Caly not far out, luring Cain (A very slow and incompetent swimmer) out toward her. She flicked a black tail and cackled in our direction.

"He's be Kraken lunch soon, you little legacies!" she snorted.

"I can do it," Jo whispered.

"What?"

"Swim. I'm a legacy of Poseidon. I will change the tides."

He screwed up him face but nothing seemed to happen.

"I'm going in," I say, I jump in after them.

Jo and I are shouting to get Cain out of his trance. I'd have been able to swim out to him except for the part where I got zapped and swam back to shore with fried hair.

And then we saw it. Fifty feet tall. Green. Slimy. Mortals must have seen a particularly beat up ship. They couldn't see the rows of spiny teeth or smell the reek.

They couldn't see a fifteen-year-old boy being led by a mermaid of death straight to its mouth.

Because Joseph had somehow disappeared from my side and was now dragging Caly back by her midnight-black tail, as she screamed bloody murder and Cain sat dazedly bobbing in the ocean like shark bait.

**So big things.**

**The end.**

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